# Yelp Business Scraper (`usestring/yelp-businesses`) Actor

Collect Yelp businesses by search term and location - rating, reviews, phone, address and coordinates.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/usestring/yelp-businesses.md
- **Developed by:** [String](https://apify.com/usestring) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.25 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Yelp Business Scraper — phone, address and coordinates

This Actor scrapes Yelp business listings by search term and location. Give it a term such as
`coffee` and a location such as `Austin, TX`, and the Yelp Business Scraper returns each business
with its **formatted phone number, split street address and exact latitude/longitude** alongside the
star rating and review count.

No Yelp account, login or cookies are used — this reads what a logged-out visitor sees. **10
businesses per Yelp search page**, up to 240 per search term.

### What it returns

| Field | Type | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `businessId` | string | Yelp's own business ID — stable across runs, use it to de-duplicate |
| `name` | string | |
| `rating` | number | Stars out of 5, e.g. `4.5` |
| `reviewCount` | number | `1243`, not `"1.2k"` |
| `categories` | string\[] | Yelp's own category labels, e.g. `["Coffee & Tea", "Bakeries"]` |
| `priceRange` | string | Yelp's price band as displayed, e.g. `$$` |
| `phone` | string | Formatted phone number, e.g. `(512) 453-1533` |
| `address` | string | Street lines joined, e.g. `1601 W 38th St, Ste 2` |
| `city`, `state`, `zipcode` | string | Split, not one blob |
| `latitude`, `longitude` | number | Exact coordinates, ready to map |
| `businessUrl` | string | The business's own Yelp page |
| `searchTerm`, `sourceUrl`, `collectedAt` | string | Provenance for every row |

### Input

```json
{ "searches": ["coffee", "plumber"], "location": "Austin, TX", "maxItems": 1000 }
```

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `searches` | Search terms, e.g. `"coffee"`. Required, 1–50. |
| `location` | City, state or ZIP to search in. Default `"Austin, TX"`. One location per run. |
| `maxItems` | Cap on dataset items. Default 1000. Free plans stop at 250 requests and 250 results — see below. |
| `concurrency` | Search pages fetched in parallel. Default 2, maximum 5. |

`maxItems` also decides how deep each term is paged: the budget is split evenly across the search
terms, in whole pages of 10, up to Yelp's own ceiling of 24 pages per search.

### Use cases

- Local lead lists with a phone number and postal address on every row
- Mapping competitor density for a category across a city
- Building a directory or map layer from geocoded, categorised businesses
- Franchise and territory planning from rating and review-count distributions
- Tracking a market on a schedule and diffing on `businessId`

### Reliability

Businesses are hydrated through the same endpoint Yelp's own search page uses, which is what makes
the formatted phone number and the structured address available at all — the rendered search HTML
carries business text for the ad cards only, and would lose the ten organic listings underneath.
Sponsored results are skipped, so paid placements do not fill the dataset.

Measured at **3.33 rows per request**: one search-page request plus two hydration requests return ten
businesses. A search page that cannot be read is recorded in the run's `SUMMARY` under `failures`
rather than silently returning fewer rows, and a run where every page failed exits with an error.

There are no retries by design: the String Unblocker owns proxy rotation and anti-bot solver
selection, so a retry loop here would only re-roll the same block.

### Frequently asked questions

**How do I export Yelp business data?** Run the Yelp Business Scraper with one or more search terms
and a location, then export the dataset as CSV, JSON or Excel. Every row carries the business name,
rating, review count, categories, phone, address and coordinates.

**How many Yelp businesses does it return per search?** 10 per search page, and it pages up to Yelp's
own limit of 240 results per search term. Raise `maxItems` to page deeper; the budget is split evenly
across the terms you supply.

**Does it page through results?** Yes — up to 24 pages per search term. Yelp clamps a single search
at 240 results however many pages are requested past it, so 240 per term is the ceiling.

**Do I need a Yelp account, API key or cookies?** No. The Yelp Business Scraper reads public Yelp
search results as a logged-out visitor and never signs in.

**Can I search several cities in one run?** Not in one run — `location` is a single value applied to
every search term. Run the Actor once per city, or schedule one run per market.

**Does it return review text?** No. The Yelp Business Scraper returns the business record — rating
and `reviewCount` are numbers, but individual review bodies are out of scope.

### Limitations

Search results only: no business detail pages, no review text, no opening hours, no menus and no
photos. One `location` per run, and sponsored results are deliberately excluded. Yelp orders a search
by relevance rather than anything stable, so re-running can return a business under a different rank;
de-duplicate on `businessId`.

### Free plan limit

Runs started from an Apify **free plan** stop at **250 requests and 250 results**, and the run
reports that it reached the limit. Any paid plan runs the full input and `maxItems` you set.

The limit exists because this Actor fetches through our own infrastructure, which Apify does not
cover for free-plan runs. It binds on requests as well as results so that a large input list cannot
spend those fetches for rows the run will not return.

# Actor input Schema

## `searches` (type: `array`):

What to look for, for example coffee.

## `location` (type: `string`):

City, state or ZIP to search in.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Global cap on dataset items. Runs started from an Apify free plan stop at 250 requests and 250 results; any paid plan runs the full amount.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Targets fetched in parallel.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searches": [
    "coffee"
  ],
  "location": "Austin, TX",
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "concurrency": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Collect Yelp businesses by search term and location - rating, reviews, phone, address and coordinates.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Item count, failure count and every target that failed, with its error.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searches": [
        "coffee"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("usestring/yelp-businesses").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "searches": ["coffee"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("usestring/yelp-businesses").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searches": [
    "coffee"
  ]
}' |
apify call usestring/yelp-businesses --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,usestring/yelp-businesses"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/Nbpjfoe2pnJG5pEHd/builds/fyrWBGiG3InYL6Hx2/openapi.json